Killing as a Playoff Sport and Recruiting Tool

I happened to be clicking around the channels (god help me) and came across a channel I didn't know I had: Testosterone TV, which they call “Spike”. I saw a promo for “IRA vs. Taliban” on a show called “Deadliest Warriors”. Today they had a “marathon” of this series.

Here's the premise. It's like the NCAA finals of killing. “Pirates vs. Knights”. “Ninjas vs. Sparta”, “Mafia vs. Yakuza” etc. It features a bunch of macho guys enjoying weapons and rating them against the opposing team. For example, would a halberd fare well against a blunderbuss? The glee with which these guys show the weapons in action, with a very high budget of simulation is one thing, but they actually suspend dead pig carcasses and bludgeon them, shoot them, cut them in half and just about do high fives over their simulated carnage.

It's a step beyond video games, which already are there to make young vulnerable uneducated people to think they will be invulnerable in a war zone. (Reset) This show seems to take absolute delight in inflicting mortal blows in such a variety of ways.

Why market means of death? Make it seem exciting? Engender schoolyard debates or bets on which weapons are deadlier and which gang would hypothetically win? It might as we be called “Rotisserie Murder”.

The desensitization of violence in this show is abhorrent. Why is this not “weapons porn”? I'm sure Dick Cheney would watch if it had a higher body count,